The vehicle using the internal combustion engine as the power source adopts an exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) system for recirculating a part of exhaust gases to an intake passage in some cases, for example, for purpose of fuel efficiency improvement and exhaust emission improvement or for similar purposes.
The internal combustion engine that adopts the EGR system can enjoy the aforementioned beneficial effect, while an EGR gas retained in the intake passage (e.g. an EGR gas retained when a throttle opening degree is controlled to be on a closed side) could cause a misfire in the internal combustion engine. Thus, in Patent Literature 1, there is proposed a technology in which the throttle opening degree is controlled to be on an open side (e.g. to be fully open) to accelerate scavenging of the EGR gas and in which the load torque is controlled so as to absorb a torque change caused by scavenging control, in fuel cut control during deceleration of a vehicle.
There are Patent Literatures 2 and 3 as prior art literatures related to the present invention.